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Babies who are conceived during winter are less likely to become obese in adulthood, according to a recent study.

The study, which was published in Nature Medicine, scientists from ETH university in Zurich claims that men who spend time in low temperatures before they have sex have more brown adipose tissue in their sperm (Mmm brown adipose tissue – so hot).

The brown adipose tissue (try saying that three times fast) can then be passed on to what eventually becomes a baby. And when that baby grows up, because of the brown adipose tissue (why can’t I stop saying brown adipose tissue?) it is less likely to become obese.

During the study the researches analysed 8,400 adult patients. They found that people born between July and November in the therefore conceived during the chilly period had a lot more brown fat than people born between January and June – and thus conceived in the warmer part of the year.

(Picture: Ella Byworth for Metro.co.uk)

They then did a similar study but with mice instead of people. They made some mice quite cold (sorry micey) and left the others at an ambient temperature, then encouraged them to bone. The temperature of the lady rats did not affect brown fat levels, the males kept in a cool environment (again, sorry about that) for several days produced rat babies with more brown fat than the others.

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Tl;dr if you want your child to be able to eat several big Macs a day and still shop at Topshop, your best best is to get knocked up in mid-January, and maybe make your Baby Daddy teabag the freezer beforehand*.

*Do not actually do this. Remember the time you got your tongue stuck to a frozen stop sign?